Happy Textual Analysis

Happy Textual Analysis:



'Happy' is a 4 minute long song, written, produced and performed by American singer Pharell Williams.

The song was released in 2013 as part of the soundtrack for the children's animation movie: Despicable Me 2.

Hundreds of different camera angles are used throughout the music video of lots of different people lip syncing and dancing to the song across America. They mainly focus of a mid shot to show the mise-en-scene.

There was also a 24 hour long Happy-thon which consisted of people all over the world dancing to Happy. This was all broadcasted live online for users to watch.  Happy Fans across the globe then began producing their own music videos and calling them 'Happy from...' then posting wherever they shot the video. This was done and uploaded to YouTube across the globe, all the way from Sydney to London.
This is a perfect example of Gauntlett's media 2.0 theory which states that users will generate their own content to upload and share online. Even though Pharell and companies perhaps won't be making any money from these and it does infringe on copyright, their product is getting broadcast to a mass audience on a global scale.

The reception theory states that audiences will interpret the text individually, all based on their own cultural and ethnic backgrounds. For instance in Iran, a group of young people who tried to recreate their own version of Happy were sentenced to jail and public flogging for breaking freedom of expression. In Iran, the country is strictly religious and governed on Islamic law. This is an extreme and saddening example of reception theory as those brought up under Islamic rule believe that 'Happiness' can only come from Allah and idolising western influences is wrong.

Story Boards for Preliminary Film

These are the story boards from the actual music video that I made myself. I used a word document and screenshotted each part of the video. Underneath, I placed a text box which contained the seconds each shot began and ended at, which helped considerably with timing. I also added in the lyrics which also helped so I knew which part and person sang what. 

 

Preliminary Song: Sleeping At Night

For my preliminary post, I have decided to do one of my favourite songs which is: 'Sleeping At Night' by Caught A Ghost.


The song is similar to that of 'Happy' by Pharrell in terms of editing and format.


I've decided to go against recreating the Happy music video as everyone is doing that and I'm not mainstream like all the other basic people in my class.

Day Filming in Luton

Part of my preliminary music video consisted of a 3 second sequence of a train station, so I decided to go to Luton to get the shot. 

I caught the 0709 service there and got several different clips using my camera phone; I had to use my camera phone as to use the DSLR; I would have had to applied for permission to shoot there and that can take several weeks or maybe even months to gain. 

I used my own iPhone 6+ which has a just as good 1080p front facing camera 

Textual Analysis: I Want To Break Free by Queen

Textual Analysis
For my textual analysis of a song which was made before 1998; I decided to analyse one of my favourite songs and music videos: I Want To Break Free, by Queen.




I Want To Break Free was a highly controversial music video in 1984 as it consisted of all male members of Queen dressed as women. It was banned on MTV in America which caused Freddie Mercury the lead vocalist to refuse to tour America again. However, in the UK and rest of the world, the video and song were hit successes being used as a fight against oppression.

The video was also a parody of Hit UK Soap Opera: Coronation Street as all the members were suppose to represent a character from the TV show.

The second part of the video then takes place dancing with the Royal Ballet as Freddie Mercury had an ambition to bring 'ballet to the masses'.  Back in the Coronation Street house Freddie two-steps from the kitchen to the living room, Freddie added this in as improvisation in the hope that someone would notice.

The dancing part of the video was choreographed by Wayne Eagling, however despite being a born performer, Freddie didn't like any choreographed act himself so he was mostly picked up and moved around during the ballet part of the video. Wayne organised the rehearsals with the Royal Ballet in secret from his superiors; something which got him into trouble later when discovered.

In April 1984 it was in the top 3 in the United Kingdom whereas it only reached a maximum of 45th in North America.


Various different camera angles were used throughout:


The scene starts off with a birds eye view of council houses in Manchester to set the scene that the video is taking place in the 'Coronation Street' setting. There's then a close up of Brian Mays face which shows the hair curlers and highlights the fact that he is dressed as a woman. This is then followed by a close up of his pink,feminine bunny slippers. There is also a mid shot of the hoover which is being used by an unseen body, making the audience wait in anticipation to see who is going to come on scene and want to see what they are dressed as.


There were also various methods of editing used throughout: an example of this would be when Freddie opens the door to under the stair and it leads onto the next part of the music video instead of a closet as would be expected. I found this to be a very effective transition and use of continuity as it could symbol 'breaking free' from being trapped inside the closet. This could also be a hidden meaning for Mercurys' true sexuality as he was homo/ bisexual.

Introductory Post

Hi, this is my first post on my second blog for A2.








We achieved an A for our final film at AS and hopefully will keep it, however I am just waiting to see how I've done in the exam part. The exam itself went alright and the topics what I revised the most came up, which was great. I wrote 11 pages in total.


However, the clip was very difficult to write for sound as there was only a saxophone player and other than that there was nothing to say other than dialogue.


For A2, we have to produce a music video. I'm unsure what video I'm going to do yet however for the preliminary task; I have decided to Sleeping At Night by Caught A Ghost.


The group has decided to split from AS for some reason, despite getting an A for our final product.